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For the National Women’s Business Council, the month of March is particularly special. March, which is also Women’s History Month, serves as a time to commemorate the landscape achievements of women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs across the country, and the globe. March 8th officially marks International Women’s Day 2018 – which annually serves as an international moment to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women who have shifted the global landscape and have fostered growth in a myriad of ways. Today, we reflect on the areas of opportunity for women to reach their full potential, but also reset the baseline for how we can support women business owners and leaders through our own efforts across the globe.

In November 2017, the United States and the Republic of India held the eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Hyperabad, India themed Women First, Prosperity for All, with a specific focus on supporting women entrepreneurs and advancing global economic growth and opportunity. The 2017 Summit theme and concentration on women was the opportunity to convene innovators and change-makers in programming to cultivate partnerships, pitch their business ideas to potential investors, such as the GIST Catalyst Pitch Competition, and learn about the various avenues to transform their businesses – and eventually transform their communities, countries, and the world[1]. It’s important to note that this year was the first time that women were the majority of participants at GES. Of the over 1,200 entrepreneurs in attendance, about 52.5 percent of entrepreneurs were women, attending from 127 different countries. Overall, it was the opportunity for individuals from a multitude of backgrounds across the global community to listen and learn from one another.

At the Council, we have also followed that goal of global connectedness through our own efforts here in the United States. Over the past years, in ties with the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, the Council has met with delegations of women entrepreneurs and economic leaders from countries all over the world to discuss the state of women’s entrepreneurship; share our research findings and data such as our “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Model” – a tool to evaluate regional supports for women’s entrepreneurship; and serve as a resource for the broader community of women business leaders. Following up on GES on December 4th, 2017, Council Member Rose Wang was honored to represent the Council at a briefing hosted at the State Department’s Foreign Press Center to a reporting tour of 18 foreign journalists coming from the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). These critical engagement opportunities have also taught us the importance of collaboration and reminded us the impact women entrepreneurs have made all across the globe.

As the Council celebrates 29 years and looks ahead to our 30th this coming October, we remain committed to conducting critical research that identify the areas for growth and opportunity for women business owners. We will continue to construct and elevate policies that will vitally address access to capital and market disparities that women encounter at all phases of their business journeys. We look at this year as a dynamic opportunity to learn from the global and domestic communities to increase our understanding and shape the ways we work to progress entrepreneurial development and economic opportunity for current and aspiring women entrepreneurs. Throughout Women’s History Month, themed #Capital4HerBiz, we will be continuing to unveil our research related to women’s access to capital so check out our first report, in conjunction with the Library of Congress’ Federal Research Division titled, Understanding the Landscape: Access to Capital for Women Entrepreneurs, which is a deep-dive into the landscape of access to capital for women entrepreneurs.

To learn more about our upcoming research and activities, be sure to check out our website at www.nwbc.gov and follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can join the conversation online as well using the hashtags #WomensHistoryMonth #InternationalWomensDay #Capital4HerBiz.

Author: Shannon Trudge, Program and Operations Manager for the National Women’s Business Council

I was exposed very early on to finance through my grandmother, who was the first female entrepreneur that I knew. Because I was good in math, she would often let me count the money from her business and by the time I was in 8th grade, I was helping her with her bookkeeping. This experience gave me an early interest in money and finance, and as I got older and eventually became exposed to Wall Street, I was all in!

This year’s National Black History Month theme, African Americans in Times of War, is the opportunity to commemorate the centennial to the end of World War I (1918) and how African-Americans have marked a widespread impact in American culture and society. Women entrepreneurs, especially black women entrepreneurs, have been a key population contributing to the socioeconomic growth and vitality of this country since its foundation. According to the 2012 U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons (SBO), there are more than 1.5 million black women-owned businesses, a near 67% increase from 2007. Black women entrepreneurs are one of the fastest subgroup of entrepreneurs of this time with an average net of 259 firms being created each day between 1997 and 2017 – the most number of firms created per day out of all subgroups of women-owned firms. According to the 2017 American Express OPEN Report, between 1997-2017, the number of women-owned businesses grew 114%, whereas firms owned by women of color expanded at 467%, four times that rate.

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) is searching for a college/university undergraduate or graduate student to join the team for a spring internship for a three to four-month term beginning late January 2018 (flexible start date).

The NWBC was established via the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988, HR 5050. Throughout the years, the NWBC has brought together women business owners, policymakers, bankers, representatives of women’s business organizations, and other stakeholders to identify the unique challenges facing women business owners and to formulate potential solutions.

2017 has been a busy year at the National Women’s Business Council and with our last Public Meeting of the calendar year (and first Public Meeting of Fiscal Year 2018), it was an opportunity to reflect on the progress made to advance women entrepreneurs, but also the priorities looking ahead to 2018. This year, the Council also celebrated 29 years of advising the White House, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on key issues facing women business owners, convening the best intellect and experience around entrepreneurial successes and challenges that women still face, and developing poignant research relevant to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Billions of federal contracting dollars go to women-owned businesses—but it’s still not enough.

In May 2017, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that the federal government exceeded its small business federal contracting goal for the fourth consecutive year, awarding 24.34 percent in federal contract dollars to small businesses. In order to achieve the goal of spending 23 percent of federal contract dollars with small businesses, major agencies of the federal government work with the SBA to establish individualized spending benchmarks, and are encouraged to meet them. For example, while the Department of Energy (DOE) aims to spend 6.37 percent of its contract monies with small businesses, the SBA, itself, aims for a small business spend of 72.75 percent of its contract dollars. You can see the FY16 agency goals and achievements here.

On October 11, 2017, the National Women’s Business Council released a new report, “Necessity as a Driver of Women’s Entrepreneurship: Her Stories.” This report is an extension of the report released by the NWBC in July 2017, “Necessity as a Driver of Women’s Entrepreneurship,” which challenged the notion that entrepreneurship is born from one of two realities: severe economic need or an innovative idea to disrupt the market. The NWBC research recognized these motivations and the entrepreneurship that results from them (typically referred to as “necessity” or “opportunity” entrepreneurship) but suggests that this traditional binary does not fully capture the range of reasons individuals—especially women—become business owners. NWBC’s work expands the traditional definition of necessity entrepreneurship to include a range of factors that might influence a woman’s decision to start a business and introduces a theoretical model to illustrate this expanded definition.

The National Women’s Business Council’s August 2017Public Meeting – the last Public Meeting for Fiscal Year 2017 — served as an opportunity to share with stakeholders the breadth and depth of the most aggressive research portfolio that the Council has undertaken to-date; to provide updates on NWBC research projects that were still in-progress, including: Hispanic women business enterprises, veteran women business ownership, necessity entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, and survey development; to announce the Council’s FY2018 research on the horizon; and to share our fourth quarter public engagement efforts.

Hispanic women entrepreneurs generate $97 billion in revenue, but have the potential to grow significantly with access to more resources

Washington, DC – In correlation with National Hispanic Heritage Month, the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) released a new report detailing the barriers to success faced by many Hispanic women entrepreneurs, and offering a roadmap of solutions to help unlock their full economic potential. Hispanic Women Entrepreneurship: Understanding Diversity Among Hispanic Women Entrepreneurswas prepared for NWBC by Susana Martinez-Restrepo, PhD, CoreWoman and Geri Stengel, Ventureneer.

The number of women entrepreneurs in the United States continues to grow at an accelerated rate. According to the 2012 U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons, there are 9.9 million women entrepreneurs who bring in about $1.6 trillion in revenue. In order to continue this remarkable progress, the U.S. needs to create and sustain the environments that will allow women business owners to thrive.